This new graduate textbook adopts a pedagogical approach to contemporary cosmology that enables readers to build an intuitive understanding of theory and data, and of how they interact, which is where the greatest advances in the field are currently being made. Using analogies, intuitive explanations of complex topics, worked examples and computational problems, the book begins with the physics of the early universe, and goes on to cover key concepts such as inflation, dark matter and dark energy, large‐scale structure, and cosmic microwave background. Computational and data analysis techniques, and statistics, are integrated throughout the text, particularly in the chapters on late-universe cosmology, while another chapter is entirely devoted to the basics of statistical methods. A solutions manual for end-of-chapter problems is available to instructors, and suggested syllabi, based on different course lengths and emphasis, can be found in the Preface. Online computer code and datasets enhance the student learning experience.

"Cosmology remains the classic introduction to modern cosmology for undergraduates. While designed as the main text for a course given at second or third year level, it is sufficiently self-contained for anyone with school science to understand. There is a strong emphasis on observational cosmology, with introductory chapters on the visible universe, our galaxy and other galaxies and the empirical basis for cosmological theory. After an account of the big bang model, there are chapters on the early stages of the big bang and galaxy formation. Finally, there are chapters on cosmological tests and on alternative theories. A feature of the book is its updated epilogue of twenty controversies in cosmology today. Latest results from the WMAP mission have been added and a wealth of new material, including a stronger emphasis on the cosmological constant. The book has an extensive glossary and the exercises have been substantially expanded. A strongest emphasis on the physical basis for cosmology is included."--BOOK JACKET.

Quantitative account of the science of cosmology

For over three millennia, most people could understand the universe only in terms of myth, religion, and philosophy. Between 1920 and 1970, cosmology transformed into a branch of physics. With this remarkably rapid change came a theory that would finally lend empirical support to many long-held beliefs about the origins and development of the entire universe: the theory of the big bang. In this book, Helge Kragh presents the development of scientific cosmology for the first time as a historical event, one that embroiled many famous scientists in a controversy over the very notion of an evolving universe with a beginning in time. In rich detail he examines how the big-bang theory drew inspiration from and eventually triumphed over rival views, mainly the steady-state theory and its concept of a stationary universe of infinite age. In the 1920s, Alexander Friedmann and Georges Lemaître showed that Einstein's general relativity equations possessed solutions for a universe expanding in time. Kragh follows the story from here, showing how the big-bang theory evolved, from Edwin Hubble's observation that most galaxies are receding from us, to the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation. Sir Fred Hoyle proposed instead the steady-state theory, a model of dynamic equilibrium involving the continuous creation of matter throughout the universe. Although today it is generally accepted that the universe started some ten billion years ago in a big bang, many readers may not fully realize that this standard view owed much of its formation to the steady-state theory. By exploring the similarities and tensions between the theories, Kragh provides the reader with indispensable background for understanding much of today's commentary about our universe.

This book is a collection of contributions examining cosmology from multiple perspectives. It presents articles on traditional Native American and Chinese cosmologies and traces the historical roots of western cosmology from Mesopotamia and pre-Socratic Greece to medieval cosmology.

This advanced undergraduate text introduces Einstein's general theory of relativity. The topics covered include geometric formulation of special relativity, the principle of equivalence, Einstein's field equation and its spherical-symmetric solution, as well as cosmology. An emphasis is placed on physical examples and simple applications without the full tensor apparatus. It begins by examining the physics of the equivalence principle and looks at how it inspired Einstein's idea of curved spacetime as the gravitational field. At a more mathematically accessible level, it provides a metric description of a warped space, allowing the reader to study many interesting phenomena such as gravitational time dilation, GPS operation, light deflection, precession of Mercury's perihelion, and black holes. Numerous modern topics in cosmology are discussed from primordial inflation and cosmic microwave background to the dark energy that propels an accelerating universe. Building on Cheng's previous book, 'Relativity, Gravitation and Cosmology: A Basic Introduction', this text has been tailored to the advanced student. It concentrates on the core elements of the subject making it suitable for a one-semester course at the undergraduate level. It can also serve as an accessible introduction of general relativity and cosmology for those readers who want to study the subject on their own. The proper tensor formulation of Einstein's field equation is presented in an appendix chapter for those wishing to glimpse further at the mathematical details.

Conversations About Astrophysics & Cosmology include the following 5 carefully-edited Ideas Roadshow conversations featuring world-leading physicists with a detailed preface highlighting the connections between the different books: I. Cosmological Conundrums - A conversation with Justin Khoury, Professor of Physics at the University of Pennsylvania. II. Astrophysical Wonders - A conversation with Scott Tremaine, Professor Emeritus of Astrophysics at the Institute for Advanced Study. III. A Universe Of Particles: Cosmological Reflections - A conversation with Rocky Kolb, the Arthur Holly Compton Distinguished Service Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago. IV. Inflated Expectations: A Cosmological Tale - A conversation with Paul Steinhardt, the Albert Einstein Professor of Science and Director of the Center for Theoretical Science at Princeton University. V. The Cyclic Universe - A conversation with Roger Penrose, co-recipient of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics and Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the Mathematical Institute at the University of Oxford. Ideas Roadshow award-winning conversations present a wealth of candid insights from some of the world's leading experts, generated through a focused yet informal setting. Combining accessibility, substance and spontaneity, they are explicitly designed to give non-specialists a unique window into frontline research and scholarship that wouldn't otherwise be experienced through standard lectures and textbooks.

An Introduction to Modern Cosmology Third Edition is an accessible account of modern cosmological ideas. The Big Bang Cosmology is explored, looking at its observational successes in explaining the expansion of the Universe, the existence and properties of the cosmic microwave background, and the origin of light elements in the universe. Properties of the very early Universe are also covered, including the motivation for a rapid period of expansion known as cosmological inflation. The third edition brings this established undergraduate textbook up-to-date with the rapidly evolving observational situation. This fully revised edition of a bestseller takes an approach which is grounded in physics with a logical flow of chapters leading the reader from basic ideas of the expansion described by the Friedman equations to some of the more advanced ideas about the early universe. It also incorporates up-to-date results from the Planck mission, which imaged the anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation over the whole sky. The Advanced Topic sections present subjects with more detailed mathematical approaches to give greater depth to discussions. Student problems with hints for solving them and numerical answers are embedded in the chapters to facilitate the reader’s understanding and learning. Cosmology is now part of the core in many degree programs. This current, clear and concise introductory text is relevant to a wide range of astronomy programs worldwide and is essential reading for undergraduates and Masters students, as well as anyone starting research in cosmology.

Theism is one of the major types of metaphysics and cosmology is the general theory of the whole wide world. Must the world have an over-worldly source, or any source? Would "space" crumble unless God perpetually sustained it by his brooding omnipresence? Is all power, properly understood, divine power? These large questions, never out of date, are examined by Professor Laird in the light of contemporary philosophy. This seminal work, originally published in 1940 is a lucid and profound discussion in theological philosophy.

A precise yet simple introduction to the foundations and main consequences of General Relativity. The first five chapters from Choquet-Bruhat's General Relativity and the Einstein Equations (2008) have been updated with new sections and chapters on black holes, gravitational waves, singularities and more to form this textbook.